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‘The dead leaves form a skirt around the stem until they are burnt back to the leaf bases by occasional fires to form a sheath around the true stem.’

‘Their long, whip-like tail has a small dorsal fin near its base and up to five venomous spines.’

‘The petiole or stipe is the stalk at the base of the frond, before the first pinna ‘branches’ from the rachis.’

1.3Geometry A line or surface on which a figure is regarded as standing.

‘the base of the triangle’

‘The two points of intersection of the latter with the sides of the triangle lie on a line parallel to the base.’

‘The length of the base of the rhombus is the length of one of its sides, here shown with 'b'.’

‘If the height of a rectangle is 7 1/6 mm and the perimeter is 27 2/15 mm, what is the length of the base of the rectangle?’

‘It is useful to make a distinction between the base against which an entity is profiled and the domain, or domains, against which concepts take shape.’

‘Draw 3 times smaller unilateral triangles, with their bases in the middle of each line of the first triangle.’

1.4Surveying A known line used as a geometrical base for trigonometry.

‘After that, a base triangulation is performed.’

‘All of the angles and at least one side (the base) of the triangulation system are measured.’

‘The base triangulation should have boundary faces; a completion is simply a new triangulation formed from the base triangulation by gluing all of the boundary faces to each other in some fashion’

1.5Heraldry The lowest part of a shield.

‘On the purple segment at the base of the shield is a silver stag, trotting with one fore hoof raised, within a silver ring.’

‘The eagle with the outstretched wings at the base of the shield stands for loyalty to country; the olive branch in the right claw being emblematic of out national dedication to the cause of peace, while the arrows in the left claw indicate our readiness to fight for justice and freedom.’

‘Attached on either side of the base of the shield is a doubled, stacked scroll with the upper portion the same angle as the shield.’

2A conceptual structure or entity on which something draws or depends.

‘the town's economic base collapsed’

‘The possibilities open to any society are constrained by the economic base.’

‘Whatever be its conceptual base, what does the duty of reasonable care and skill of a bank encompass?’

‘Personally I think you should find your own truth, but if you are looking for some solid structure as a base then go for it.’

‘When I arrived in 1988, this was a city that was trying to reinvent itself, realising as it was that culture could become an economic base.’

‘The experiences since the mid-1980s provide a rich base of evidence to draw on as a springboard for ongoing debate.’

‘This is the key point of the book, but I am less convinced of this claim and not quite sure what lessons might be drawn from it for understanding the broader bases for sustained economic growth.’

‘This glimmer of hope is welcome indeed for York as Thrall has been an important part of York's broad economic base.’

‘One of the fundamental bases of the structural transformation and modernization of European life and society was the development of burgerliche domesticity.’

‘Working with a variety of pantheons gives you a wider base to draw on when you need help or guidance.’

‘She has a long-standing interest in the social structural bases of economic activity.’

‘The theoretical bases of these concepts are found in Structural Family Therapy.’

‘People are motivated to have children by the need for an economic base.’

‘We believe that it is important for economists to have a sense of the burden management faces over the next year and to help provide solid conceptual bases for the decisions that must be made.’

‘This gives them a broad base of skills and experience when they complete their training.’

‘We want to explore and expand the conceptual bases for industrial design.’

‘Academic freedom rests on a solid base of peer review and as such is the responsibility of the entire profession.’

‘And so there are three bases for friendships, depending on which of these qualities binds friends together.’

‘Some economists think Howard's approach might be the last best chance for towns that have seen family farms vanish and their economic bases crumble.’

‘As the brownstone industry expanded, it provided a broad economic base for the town of Portland.’

2.1A foundation or starting point for further work.

‘she uses existing data as the base for the study’

‘It will guarantee a solid base for those students continuing to advanced studies.’

‘His systematization of these texts became one of the chief bases for the structure of the later printed versions of this corpus of texts.’

‘But it doesn't take long to defrost, and it is a good thing to have a supply of in the freezer in case of impromptu guests or as the base for a quick easy meal.’

‘That which was, is the foundation for what is now, which becomes the base for what is to come.’

‘And whilst all the talk may have been of forwards, the base for victory was built further down the Newbridge turf.’

‘I think that's a fine base for a resolution for the new year.’

‘After completion, this will provide a firm base to push the Pattaya Sports Club into the new Millennium.’

‘For people whose school Spanish is a distant memory, this course will offer revision and updating of the written and spoken language, to improve competence and confidence and form a base for further study.’

‘Since the book is intended to provide the reader a base for further study, the absence of citations is somewhat disturbing.’

‘Since Lisbon Strategy is a topics which has not been given much attention in Croatia, the published articles represent the base for further research.’

‘Hong Kong University law professor Albert Chen said the decision was a good base for political reform discussions.’

‘It started with the Native Americans who set the base for all the development.’

‘It also provides a new base for vital research and study of the disease carried out by the University of Sheffield.’

2.2with modifierA group of people regarded as supporting an organization, for example by buying its products.

‘a customer base’

‘That approach will be helpful to maintain sales balance, customer base and market share and performance.’

‘Now the company's second act depends on how fast Micromarketing can diversify its client base.’

‘Only by whipping up fear and loathing of trade unions among the business community will these organizations get their client base.’

‘There is considerable overlap between the supporter base of both teams; picking out the away fans was an impossible task.’

‘The top business leadership will have to look after its bases of support, having betrayed the political class and union leaders by supporting a junta that scarcely could have done worse when in power.’

‘Ortega has won his loyal client base by offering a constantly updated range across his entire empire.’

‘Ten years ago the company had a customer base of only 45000 clients, with 2450 employees.’

‘And, how do we reformat and re-purpose output to encompass the rest of the user base?’

‘There is likely to be an existing customer base for the new product and therefore the risks are lower.’

‘While this robs National of issues, it is making the party increasingly unpalatable to parts of its support base.’

‘York City FC has never won a major trophy, never even played in the top League, and has a supporter base of no more than 4,000 stalwarts.’

‘They'd be loosely aligned, run joint advertising campaigns, and pool their supporter base.’

‘Both parties rest on narrow social bases and none of their candidates have substantial popular support.’

‘Of course, the Bibster system itself will continue its work. but this depends on the user base keeping it going.’

‘ProStrategy has a number of existing customers in Britain and it will expand there by adding customers to its existing client base.’

‘A deal would allow them to merge the private client customer bases of two of the second tier stockbrokers in the Irish market.’

‘Political instability has resulted from the inability of leaders to gain support outside their regional bases.’

‘Both parties rest on ever more narrow bases of popular support, and function openly as instruments of the financial aristocracy.’

‘The base, not even Dean supporters, but the base of the party turned on them like wolverines.’

‘These initial supporters will be the base upon which you build the rest of your list.’

3A place used as a centre of operations by the armed forces or others; a headquarters.

‘he headed back to base’

‘Unique geological, glaciological, and meteorological studies continue there from purpose-built bases around the edge of Antarctica or at the South Pole.’

‘He said the company had always had two move workers between the two bases depending on where the work was, but now circumstances dictated closure of the Scalloway workshop for the time being.’

‘Living on a Marine base on the edge of restive Ramadi is a shock to a civilian's senses.’

‘He stressed the successes not just of the aircrew but of the hundreds of Combat Support Group personnel supporting combatant forces at bases within and outside Australia.’

‘During World War II, Utah's population increased as the government developed military bases and supported wartime industries.’

‘Well, his firm had a base on the Old Kent Road under the name London Easylink, and its prime contract was route 185 from Lewisham.’

‘The interior of the stronghold was as utilitarian as the rest of the base, made of white stone with no attempt at ornamentation.’

‘Analysts have criticised Karzai for clumsy attempts to impose his will by sending in appointees to try to implement disarmament without necessary support bases, or central backup.’

‘After pulling up to the smooth blue band that marked the perimeter of the base, the rest of the unit limped into view.’

‘Troops frequently spot suspicious figures just outside the base.’

‘We galloped to the base where the rest of the people were unloading the cargo.’

‘The firm has outgrown its base on Stricklandgate and needs extra space in order to expand and create more jobs.’

‘Neither it is limited to armies and combatants facing each other but targets the enemy formations and supporting bases with long distance aircraft and missiles.’

‘We were eager to get out of there, and to the new base near the front lines.’

‘When they were far enough away from the base, they all rested and sat down.’

‘He turned the turret to examine the rest of the base.’

‘From there he was employed by Mero Space Frame, a German firm with a British base.’

‘It was the only working lift in the building, seeing as it was underground like the rest of the base, so no one knew it existed apart from those in their sector.’

‘He had an office that connected to the rest of the base through a short tube.’

‘A railroad line was constructed from the base to the front lines at Petersburg.’

‘Compared with precious metals, base metals are plentiful in nature and therefore much cheaper, of course.’

‘A longtime goal of the alchemists was the transmutation of base metals into precious metals.’

‘Most modern currencies are fiat currency, allowing the coins to be made of base metal.’

Origin

Late Middle English: from Old French bas, from medieval Latin bassus ‘short’ (found in classical Latin as a cognomen). Early senses included ‘low, short’ and ‘of inferior quality’; from the latter arose a sense ‘low in the social scale’, and hence (mid 16th century) ‘reprehensibly cowardly, selfish, or mean’.